AMD Eyefinity works pretty well with 7870

[+streakeagle]

I just got in an active adapter today to permit me to use three old Samsung Syncmaster 204B 20" 1600x1200 LCD monitors via DVI ports.

My card is an AMD 7870 with 2 GB GDDR5 RAM.

I wondered if this card could handle flight sims at 3 x 1600 x 1200.

It cost me some FPS, but still played well with SF2.

In DCS world, I had to go from maxed out settings to medium settings to get similar frame rates.

But it worked very well and looked very good.

I think the key would be to have 3 1080 TVs at 46" or larger, then it would be even more amazing.

I would prefer to use the monitors in portrait mode for more vertical depth, but SF2 would CTD until I went back to landscape orientation.

As it is, the wide view angle greatly enchanced my sense of speed and helped me know where I was looking while panning around with Track IR.

Looking down into the cockpit and seeing the sides of the aircraft makes you feel like you are really inside a small cramped cockpit.

I can see where using a high end card or multigpu would be very useful to use multiple screens and still have high FPS while keeping quality settings maxed out.

[+SkateZilla]

welcome to the eyefinty club, trust me, once you get used to it in DCS, SF2, BF3. ... you wont go back to one screen

[+JediMaster]

I think the key would be to have 3 1080 TVs at 46" or larger, then it would be even more amazing.

 

That would be one HELL of a big desk, requiring an equally large room, and unless they were LED a LOT of heat and electricity.

[+SkateZilla]

SF2 requires Modding of a few files to work with eyefinity. especially custom resolutions w/ bezel correction.

 

I run 6048x1080 (5760x1080 desktop), I think I also ran 3240x1920 (3528px Tall Wide w/ Bezel Correction) with no problem.

 

A lot of people dont realize, you can set Bezel correction, then revert desktop back to the standard resolution, but still use the bezel correction resolution in the game. I use Desktop at the standard 5760x so my windows and icons dont hide behind bezels.

 

 

1. Create Eyefinity Group

2. Give Center Screen the Deferred (minimizing center screen tearing)

3. Set Triple Buffering

4. Force VSync ON.

optional: (Setup any bezel correction now if you want, just remember the resolution)

optional: (after you set bezel correction, close everything right click desktop, screen resolution, and set non bezel corrected resolution)

 

Configuring Strike Fighters 2: (if you have a Custom Viewlist.ini, Skip to Step 7)

5. Extract the Viewlist from the FlightDATA.CAT

6. Place Viewlist.ini in <C:/Users/<UserName>/Saved Games/Thirdwire/<StrikeFighers2 Game Folder>/Flight/> Folder

7. Open Viewlist.ini, Goto ViewClass2, OffsetDistance=0.06 To Change OffsetDistance=-.175, Also Change MaxFOV to 240

8. Repeat for ViewClass3 if you want the Snap Views to be pulled back as well.

9. Launch Strike Fighters 2

10. Goto Options

11. Goto Graphics

12. Choose the Eyefinity Resolution from the Drop Down Menu. (3600x4800 [Portrait] or 4800x3600 [Landscape] or bezel corrected res)

13. Choose the Aspect Ratio Of Your Center Monitor (3:4 portrait, or 4:3 landscape).

14. Start a Single Mission and Test.

Edited October 12, 2012 by SkateZilla

[+streakeagle]

I already had this working correctly with bezel correction when I posted.

TrackIR doesn't like Triple Buffering with an AMD ATi gpu, so it is always disabled for me.

I didn't need to do anything to the SF2 viewlist to make this work.

The actual field of view of the three displays in landscape mode is on the order of 100-120 degrees, so why would I want to be able to look behind me with a 240 fov?

SF2 crashes to desktop if the monitor is in portrait rotation (3:4), so I was forced to use landscape (4:3).

 

The flaw I see in the system is that the monitors need to be angled toward me to have correct colors/brightness/contrast whereas the graphics engines of games distort the images to accommodate flat screens. So, theoretically, one big flat panel viewed at the right distance (i.e. matching the game engine's FOV) would have little to no apparent distortion. Whereas the angled monitors will look distorted regardless of the view range.

[+SkateZilla]

DCS has 3 Camera setup, which eliminates the "distortion", but it's a resource hog. in BF3 it's kinda annoying, and in SF2 it's not as annoying, the Pros are better than the cons though

 

i had eyefinity working fine in portrait mode on my 16:9 screens.

 

edit, yeah, forgot, if youre running 4:3x3 you wont need to edit the viewlist, unless you wanna move the camera back some (it did move it forward some when i did 9:16x3)

Edited October 13, 2012 by SkateZilla

[+SkateZilla]

this is what my setup looks like in portrait mode, Flew 3 missions, no crashes at all.

 

Testing the Screens in Vertical / Portrait orientation instead of Horizontal / Landscape

[+streakeagle]

I got it to run A-10C in portrait mode by using the "windowed" option... but it had much lower frame rates at about 20 fps.

I never got SF2 to even make it to a menu screen in portrait mode.

 

I have come to the conclusion that I would rather have 60+ FPS with full quality at 1600x1200 than 30-40 fps with wide view.

I still have a 24" 1920x1200 monitor that I haven't tried with the new PC yet, but I use that one as a TV monitor in another room since it has every kind of TV input including stereo sound.

Whereas these old Samsung 204Bs don't have any HD tv inputs and no sound.

[+SkateZilla]

trick with DCS is to NOT use the 3 Camera Screen preset.